When is a spike not a spike

[SB2015]

Using the Libre I was shocked at the spike that I had straight after breakfast. With the focus on pre meal BG this was all hidden, so that bowl of sugar disguised as cereal has gone. Back to porridge and a focus on timing and type of delivery.

I know that I need to reduce the spikes. I was wondering how low I should expect to get it. I know Deux talked of any reading above 7 being damaging, which I makes sense, but should I realistically be hoping to get spikes lower than that. I am currently aiming for staying below 10 (a starting point and I need a bit of a positive at present as things feel a little overwhelming) after breakfast, by timing my insulin. Currently at 30 min before meal and using multiwave.
(Having written this should I have put this in pumping bit)

So what is a realistic target to aim for.

 

[Sally71]

I think ideally it's meant to be not more than 2-3 mmol/l above your starting point. So if your pre-meal reading was 5.0 you shouldn't go up to more than 8.0 afterwards. Pretty hard to do a lot of the time unless you are a very low carb eater I should think - since having our Libre I am also stunned at the size of some of the spikes, especially breakfast cereal, and on days when the blood meter is showing nice happy normal numbers all day, the Libre track will probably show massive mountains! 😱
I'm still working on what to do about it too!

 

[trophywench]

Depends on the spike! LOL

If it's literally just a blip and isn't like well into the teens, then I can't see it would be there for long enough to be disastrous. However if you are doing it for eg 20 mins every morning of your life - then I spose it might?

With your multi-waves - are you having enough upfront to actually 'kill' the initial spike? I mean - I don't know whether mine are enough myself cos I'm certainly not going to Glucometer test my BG every 5 minutes - but with a Libre, you could!

 

[AlisonM]

That morning spike is one reason I avoid the majority of cereals for breakfast, oatmeal being the exception as I seem able to handle that. Finding a low carb/slow release breakfast is the key IMO and that takes a bit of experimenting. I think combining the morning glucose dump with a fast converting cereal is just too much for our systems to handle, I came to this conclusion because I once had cornflakes for lunch with no huge spike and reckon that it was because I'm more active in the middle of the day so used up more energy, or used it faster, or something.

 

[Annette]

My spikes, and hence how much I give upfront on my mulitwave, vary with time of day, more than anything. (But oddly, in the opposite way to most people😛) Breakfast/lunch, I do half the amount upfront, the rest over 15-30 minutes depending on what I'm doing. Teatime/early evening, I need 2/3 the amount up front, the remainder over 30 mins regardless of what I'm doing. This keeps my spikes down to under 9 (my personal goal) and very shortlived (on a good day. i have bad days too.)
But it was only with the Libre I managed to work that lot out (my maths gets better every day ) - without it I woundnt have had a chance!

 

[Bloden]

When is a spike not a spike? With my current Libre sensor, hahaha.

I've managed to squash my post-breakfast spike with oats, high-fibre fruit and full-fat milk and yogurt - it's a low-GI / hi-fat n fibre combo.🙂 And I do half an hour on my exercise bike, starting 40 minutes after my breakfast jab. It seems to work!

 

[SB2015]

I am so glad that I joined this forum.

Thank you for the ideas. I found the Libre has given me an overload of info, and it has been a very wobbly start with it. However the ideas above give me individual things to work on step by step, and I know that the Libre will help with this. This is going to be easier now that the readings on the Libre are a closer match for my BG (Taking on more water seems to have helped, and I shall position the second sensor a lot more carefully)

Thanks again

 

[Bloden]

Baby steps - worked for me. Good luck with the tweaking, SB.🙂😛